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Platform for the management and construction of sports and golf courses
On the busy outskirts of Antwerp city centre, we find Ternesse Golf & Country Club. The 18-hole Championship course and the additional 9 holes are maintained by Luc De Bie and his team. The aim is to turn the course into an oasis of green with a sense of tranquillity, right next to one of the busiest motorways in Belgium.
Golf & Country Club Ternesse in Wommelgem was founded in 1976. From 2009 to 2018, the entire site was completely and extensively renovated. Golfers can enjoy themselves on an 18-hole Championship course and a 9-hole course. The size of the course brings a lot of challenges. Constantly monitoring all the grounds and ensuring that any diseases cannot manifest themselves is one of the challenges Luc De Bie and his team face. It is therefore important to focus on preventive treatments. “We are constantly looking for innovative fertilisers, biostimulants and wetting agents to create the strongest possible weapon against any disease pressure.” In this, Luc gets a lot of help from the Luc Pauwels nv team with the necessary advice and innovative products.
Besides the 27 greens, the greenkeepers have to maintain many acres of fairways. During the season and weather permitting, they often sit on the riding mower to keep everything as nice as possible. “Normally, we fertilise our fairways with urean. Urean provides a soft start in spring so we don't have to rush out with our lawnmowers.” This also saves the greenkeeper team work, allowing them to focus more on getting the entire grounds up and running. Later in the season, the fairways require more than just urean nitrogen anyway. Together with Luc Pauwels, an additional solution was sought.
A choice was made from the range of golf course fertilisers with a look at Ternesse's fairways. GreenBion CRF 20-5-10 + 2.5 CaO + 4 MgO was quickly put forward as a solution to quickly protect the greens from Ternesse's challenging conditions. In recent years, tests were carried out with other fertilisers. Unfortunately, no uniform spreading pattern was obtained (spote effect). At the end of April, GreenBion was applied at 150 kg/hectare. The effect was visible, but the dose was too low. Therefore, it was spread again in September at 200 kg/hectare.
“With the humid weather, we suffered from grass and dollarspot failure on some parts of our fairways this summer. After the second application in September with GreenBion, we saw a remarkable difference compared to other years. Everything was nice and green very quickly and the extra growth suppressed the dollar spot.” On the golf course itself, the difference was even seen by golfers.
So what makes GreenBion CRF 20-5-10 + 2.5 CaO + 4 MgO the formula for fairways? Dissecting the formula, we see that the proportion of nitrogen is a lot higher than the proportion of potassium. This will work on the length growth of the grass and provide a boost to the grass in spring. Even in September, we still have growth which means we can spread GreenBion fairway fertiliser even then. All GreenBion fertilisers have a CRF formula which means the nitrogen is released slowly and not immediately. As a result, you can still see the effect of the fertiliser after 3 months.
Forsfor is additionally going to work to stimulate root growth. You do not give a boost with it, it is rather a supplement. Important: the phosphorus is freely available. The potassium part makes the grass stretch, which makes for a denser turf. In addition, magnesium ensures a green and intensive colour. Finally, calcium improves the uptake of trace elements, one of the building blocks of grass. The calcium oxide will not cause a pH increase.
